Von Schweikert VR-2's

I had high hopes for the VR2 but at the high end show on Friday the VR2's sounded extremely muddy to me. This was a shock. I've always liked the VR line and it seems to keep getting better . A good friend of mine tells me that the VR2's sounded much better later in the weekend.

These shows are really a crapshoot, you depend on the vendor to do an adequate setup, choose useful music, etc. One of my favorites system at CES - Pipedreams and VAC (amazing!!!) - sounded mediocre on Friday morning. Sure wish I could have attended Saturday and Sunday.

Did any of you hear the VR2's at the show? What was your experience?

Thanks,
Art

I heard the VR-2's and on Friday they did sound muddy, but it wasn't the fault of the speaker. There were some interesting dynamics going on in that room (which I will refrain from discussing) and the PARC was not being used at that particular time. The room interaction was causing the muddy sound and I can tell you that when the PARC was connected the sound was much clearer with a far better soundstage. (yes, of course I'm biased to the PARC--but this isn't about the PARC--it's about the room) Keep in mind--if you have a good room you don't need a PARC, it's not compensating for the speaker, but for the room. In those hotel rooms with very solid plaster walls you do need a PARC. Speaker placement and cabling were also serious issues in that room. The cables being used had a PVC dielectric and really sounded bad (the muddiness you heard actually masked some of the cabling problems, but the cables still killed the soundstage that those speakers can deliver). I frankly felt pretty bad for Albert and crew because it was not the performance they are capable of.

This is a question for Rives... I know this might sound silly but what is a PARC?

PARC - Parametric Adaptive Room Compensation. It's designed to deal with bass modes. In some rooms, and particularly the hotel rooms at the Westin with solid plaster walls the room dimensions are not optimal and it can reinforce certain bass frequencies causing the bass to sound boomy and the midrange unclear. This is not the fault of the equipment, but the interaction with the room. One room at HE 2003 had 10 x 20 x 30 dimensions. It doesn't take much to figure out this will be a big problem. It had a 16 db bump at 114 Hz--almost unlistenable without the PARC. Great equipment in that room--but the room was the problem--not the equipment.

There is a forthcoming review of the PARC in the July issue of Stereophile. Until then, you can get more information on the PARC on our website.

I listen to VR'2 at a friend house, the gear he is using,
monoblock VTL 5k, tube cd player I think it concidence
sorry guys ( Iam just guessing on the name of the cd),
The cd has a wooden cover on top, pre amp Bel canto,
wiring all audience a24, The sound is incredible,
3D holographic sound is intoxicating,imaging world class
soundstage huge......, I think this speaker is as good
as the audiophysics virgo,they have both disappearing
act.The palpability is close to my andra 15k specially,
when we replace the Bel canto with my audio art pre amp,
For $2500 this speaker is a winner, if you cant afford
5k plus speaker this VR2 is a good choice.Dont pay attention
what you heard in the show. Its a good speaker.